For Immediate Release
Monday, October 13, 2003
Contact: Colleen Henrichsen, Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center Communications Office, (301) 496-2563

Scientific Symposium Marks 50 Years of Clinical Center Research

BETHESDA, Md. – The Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health marks its fiftieth year of clinical research with a scientific symposium presented by past and current Clinical Center researchers on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Masur Auditorium, Building 10, NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md.

The program will highlight key discoveries by past and present Clinical Center investigators that include combination chemotherapy for cancer treatment, a basic understanding and treatment of heart disease, the first gene therapy treatment, the first AIDS treatment, the eradication of post-transfusion hepatitis, and the characterization and treatment of many orphan diseases.

Cancer therapeutics will be addressed by Dr. Vincent T. DeVita, professor of medicine, epidemiology and public health at the Yale University School of Medicine; Dr. Thomas A. Waldmann, chief of the National Cancer Institute Metabolism Branch; and Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg, chief of the NCI Surgery Branch.

Cardiovascular disease will be covered by Dr. Eugene Braunwald, Hersey Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, scientific director for clinical research, NHLBI.

Dennis S. Charney, M.D., Chief, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health and Dr. Henry F. McFarland, director of the Clinical Neuroscience Program, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will discuss clinical applications in neuroscience.

Molecular basis of disease will be presented by Dr. W. French Anderson, director of Gene Therapy Laboratories, University of Southern California, Dr. Alan M. Spiegel, director, NIDDK, Dr. Elizabeth F. Neufeld, Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, and Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director, National Human Genome Research Institute.

Infectious diseases and will be addressed by Dr. Harvey J. Alter, chief, Infectious Diseases Section, Department of Transfusion Medicine, Clinical Center and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

The program will open with remarks by NIH Director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, and will close with an overview of the future of clinical research by Clinical Center Director Dr. John I. Gallin.

The symposium is free and open to the public.

The first patient admission to the NIH Clinical Center in July 1953 heralded the start of intramural clinical research, a program that balances basic and clinical research, at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.

Since that first patient admission, NIH investigators have seen more than a quarter million patients. Today, patients continue to come to NIH from every corner of the world seeking answers to their scientific and medical questions.

The fiftieth anniversary celebration events will culminate with the opening of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center in late 2004.

For a complete schedule of the NIH Clinical Center's Fiftieth Anniversary Scientific Symposium, visit: Celebrating Fifty Years of Clinical Research.